May 5, 2008  

Ministry Tools
Bob Burroughs

Quote

Learn to say 'no' to the good--so you can say 'yes' to the best. [John Maxwell]

Scripture

Simply let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.”  (Matthew 5:37]

Prayer

Gracious Father of  all Life, Sustainer of All Creation, and the One who will bring His Chosen People to Heaven, I bless You this day for the month of May-- beautiful, green, glorious in color and majestic for our eyes to behold and see Your handiwork. May those who call You Lord, Redeemer, and Savior take full advantage of the beauty that surrounds us and see that our children continue to learn more of Your greatness and the beauty You give to the earth. Teach us, Your servants, to love You more deeply, to teach our children to follow You, love and serve You. May those in need of grace be given a bountiful harvest of it from friends and family. May those in need of forgiveness have it heaped upon them by those whom they would never suspect to be forgiving. May those in need of love have it showered upon them by those who love and care for them. These are difficult days in which we live. We need all the grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love we can get from family and friends. I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, who is grace, mercy, forgiveness and love personified. Amen.

What Think Ye?

Vision & Passion
One of the most important watchwords of today's church should be--vision. To have vision means the ability to be able to see what is not yet here. If our vision comes from God, then we must also have a passion to bring it to fruition.

Passion fuels vision! If you do not have the emotional fire and heartfelt enthusiasm known as passion, there can’t be true vision.

But--there are passion destroyers that can keep us from having the passion, that God desires of us to stir the hearts of our people--and even the passion, within our own hearts.  

passion destroyers may include:

• Bitterness--a bitter heart and spirit quenches the Spirit of God

• Disobedience--to the will of God for our lives, family and ministry

• Distraction--anything that gets in the way of our passion and vision

• Ego trips--one of the greatest stumbling blocks to a great ministry

• Lack of focus--if we can't focus, how can we expect our people to focus

• Physical fatigue--from overworking, overeating, no exercise, and more overstressing but not overcoming

• Selfish greed--everything that is done is done for "me" and not for the Kingdom

• Unwillingness to make painful changes--afraid to take a new step or offer a new challenge--for fear of rejection

So--there you have it!  How is your vision--and your passion?

What think ye?

Leadership

Leadership Mantras for Success

#3. Have the courage to say NO.  NO is a complete sentence.
Jesus, in the scripture quoted above, told us to let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no.’ Have you ever said “yes” and later, regretted saying it? You are not alone! Every one has done this, believe me!

Food for thought: “no” is--within this one small word--a complete sentence. Try saying the “no” word in a situation, and as difficult as it might be, you will feel good having said it—while at the same time, have a sense of urgency.

Why “urgency,” you ask? Simply because of these three reasons:

1. Church staff people seem to be born with a great desire to be “people-pleasers” – and try to please all of the people--all of the time, if at all possible. If the “no” word is spoken to a church member’s request, it might be taken wrong and cause some problems. From personal experience: I’ve been there—done that –got the T-Shirt!

2. Church staff people have the desire to be of service and be helpful to any and all requests--and often sacrifice their own personal time or family time to say “yes,” when “no” would be the desired answer. Being of service is a good thing—till it interferes with your personal life, which includes spouse, children, and time spent away from them. No where in your job description does it say these words: You are required to or even expected to say “yes” to all requests by church members!

3. Church staff people tend to be fearful that if they say “no” to certain requests, the opportunity might not come their way a second time. Again: been there--etc. If they ask you once, they will probably ask again—different day—different reason--different situation.

No one should expect church staff people to be at their beck-and-call. Neither should staff be expected to fulfill every request asked of them! To fulfill all requests would mean working many additional hours a week--and miss great family time in the process.

Some people are “users.” Know any by name? They use people, abuse people with words sometimes by expecting them to be their personal “gofers.” How sad. It is even more sad that people give in to these people and--regret doing it later on!

NO is a complete sentence! So: let’s all say it together:  

NO!  Very good! Now, once more with feeling: NO! 

Now—that wasn’t so difficult, was it! Carry on.

Marriage & Family

How Long Has It Been?
Spring is here. Isn’t it wonderful to see the trees come alive with greenery and buds, to see the earth begin to produce the fresh bulbs and flowers, to see the grass turning green and we are now thinking about getting the mower tuned up! Spring is a wonderful time of the year—and a great time to take stock of personal values.

May is the last month before Summer—and things get really busy. Soon, there will be Choir Tour, Workshops, VBS, Conferences, Family Vacation, Camps and more, more and more. So, let’s take a few moments to refresh, reload, and retool our thinking for this great month of May!

How long has it been since you:

• took a long walk with your spouse and told her/him how much you love being married to her/him?

• took your children to some special place, perhaps in the forest, woods or the beach, or an ice cream shop and had one-on-one time with each, telling them how much you love them and how special they are to your life?

• actually took a real and complete day off—not accepting any calls--and did some things YOU wanted to do?

• took a complete and time allowed vacation and spent it with your family? Conferences don’t count. Tours don’t count. I’m talking staying at home and doing things around the house—or going to some special place and doing really cool things—or taking a special trip to some place everyone has always wanted to go! Pretty soon, your kids will be gone--and you’ll have an empty nest. Better spend quality time with the kids now before they are gone!

• did a favor for someone else that required personal time, sweat, or sacrifice. My neighbor just lost his wife--after a long and difficult illness. He had no freedom to do anything because she was bed-ridden and he did everything for her. I would often cut his grass and edge his sidewalk. Esther and I would cook an extra steak or piece of salmon and take a plate over to him, knowing he did not have time to fix a good meal for himself. We would always feel better after we did something for him.

Let's face it. Life is way too short not to do life’s important things, Dear Friends. Your last breath will NOT be:

• “I wish I could make one more hospital visit,” or
• “I wish I could go to one more committee meeting,” or even
• “I wish I could have one more good choir rehearsal!”

Your last breath just might be: “

• "I wish I could have loved you more, Dear Family.”

To enjoy the rest of this MME please click here...